Bring stats to tryouts?

[catchermom13]

DD is planning to try out for several elite 14u teams for next season over the next few weeks. My question is, is it appropriate/expected for her to bring in her pitching stats from this season? Is it over the top or do most girls try to help sell themselves this way?

 

[JJsqueeze]

definitely over the top. They will see everything they need to see by watching her pitch.

 

[BadMonkeys]

No need for the stats catchermom. Elite teams are looking for college exposure. One stat that will matter is GPA.

 

[catchermom13]

Got it. Thanks for the quick input guys!

 

[CoogansBluff]

Interesting question, IMHO. ... Or should I say interesting 'subject.'

Nobody brings stats to tryouts. It just isn't done. But why not?

One is that nobody does it, so there's the fear that you'll stand out as an 'over-the-top' parent. Another reason is that stats can be made up. They can't be trusted.

But if I'm a coach, and you sent me your previous team's stats, for the whole team, I would be interested in that. I know how good all the teams are in the area, and stats can show me where you fit into that team. I realize they could be inaccurate, but so can watching a player field five ground balls.

My daughter is playing in a summer league for players who will try out for HS varsity in the spring. She's a rising 9th grader, so coach has never seen her play. The team is not practicing. It would be invaluable, IMO, for the coach to have the stats for all the players from their travel teams this year - if it were team stats, not just an individual's stats provided by a parent. But it's not something that is done.

 

[CoogansBluff]

We really do have to keep it to what they do in tryouts or it is not fair.

That may well be. When I say that statistical information would be invaluable, that doesn't also mean that it would be practical. You can't realistically track down stats on every player, and if you tried, then you set yourself up to be accused of favoring travel players, or not giving certain players a fair look, or trusting stats that might be inflated, or favoring certain travel teams or coaches that provide that info, etc.

I'm also accepting of the fact that high school softball tryouts are like an audition for a play, and your previous roles and credits don't factor in that much, except in the previous seasons of the same play. That's just what it is. If you want to make the team, or start, you have to make it obvious in the limited time you have to prove it.

But watching tryouts at our high school is like watching a jury trial where you know something that the jury doesn't because it's inadmissible evidence. You pointed to the C player who led your team in hitting. I know that happens. But there are errors made in the other direction too, where a coach doesn't know how a kid delivers on Sundays when the game is on the line. And perhaps at most high schools, there is enough distance between players that it's not that hard to figure it out. At others, where you literally have 35 travel players in a program and little history on their roles on their year-round teams, it's got to be tough.

 

[Momo'sDad]

At a tryout, a player has to show what they can do, not talk about their prior season's stats. In general, 'elite' teams will be familiar with most of the elite talent in their area. Anyone can have a bad tryout, so if the coaches know a player is strong from having seen her several times with their own eyes, then a bad tryout won't necessarily hurt her chances of receiving an offer. If an unknown player has a poor tryout, then she's unlikely to be offered a spot.

I'm glad you thought to ask before having your daughter do that!

 

[CoogansBluff]

Just to be clear, I do not advocate bringing stats to a tryout. But I do think that travel ball coaches put too much trust in what they see in a two-hour tryout and don't do enough background checking. If you gave me a choice between watching a kid practice with me for two hours and nothing else vs. a conversation with her former coach and full team stats from that team, I'd take the conversation and the stats. Would a college take a kid without knowing his GPA and SAT score?

But I realize that in travel ball, it's not that easy and convenient. I've just seen so many foolish decisions made from tryouts because of coaches who were overconfident in their abilities to make judgments based on a couple of hours. That's why this thread interests me. I don't see many TB coaches who do a really good job of picking players from tryouts. I see lots of whiffs.

 

[SoAZDad]

Just to be clear, I do not advocate bringing stats to a tryout. But I do think that travel ball coaches put too much trust in what they see in a two-hour tryout and don't do enough background checking. If you gave me a choice between watching a kid practice with me for two hours and nothing else vs. a conversation with her former coach and full team stats from that team, I'd take the conversation and the stats. Would a college take a kid without knowing his GPA and SAT score?

But I realize that in travel ball, it's not that easy and convenient. I've just seen so many foolish decisions made from tryouts because of coaches who were overconfident in their abilities to make judgments based on a couple of hours. That's why this thread interests me. I don't see many TB coaches who do a really good job of picking players from tryouts. I see lots of whiffs.

I agree. But if I did talk to the former coach and look t the team stats, my chief interest would be a comparison of the objective stats that aren't subject to scorekeeper bias (games started, games played, plate appearances, reached base average, # strikeouts and walks and HBP, etc.

 

[CoogansBluff]

I agree. But if I did talk to the former coach and look t the team stats, my chief interest would be a comparison of the objective stats that aren't subject to scorekeeper bias (games started, games played, plate appearances, reached base average, # strikeouts and walks and HBP, etc.

I'd put more faith in those, for sure. But if you're savvy with stats and look at ROE-vs.-HIT, you can glean a bit from the more subjective stats as well, IMO. The most important thing to know is how good the team is, and the quality of their schedule. A batting average of .400, even if the scorekeeper is impeccable, is meaningless unless the coach has a very solid idea of that team's place in the food chain.